It’s interesting that Jesus only mentioned Church twice. Firstly to say that he would build it, and secondly to tell us how we should protect it.
But what is it that Jesus is building and we should be protecting?
Back in 2010 I interviewed the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and I asked him what he thought Church was. He replied ‘Church is what happens when people encounter Jesus’. I’m sure he was drawing on what Jesus himself said ‘For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’ (Mt. 18:20) Jesus didn’t explicitly state that this was church, but I find it very interesting that he said this immediately after describing how we should protect church (Mt. 18:15-19).
So Jesus is telling us that Church is what happens when two or three people gather together with the intention of connecting with each other and with him. And that it is these relationships that need protecting.
As I look back over my faith journey, some – if not all – of my fondest memories are when exactly that happened. When I met with a small group of people to eat, talk, and to listen to what Jesus might be calling us to do in our own lives and in his world. And some of the most difficult times where when things happened that undermined these relationships. And as we know, this is exactly what the early church did. They met in small, intimate, intensely relational groups. And again, some of the most shocking stories in the early church where when these relationships went wrong (e.g. Acts 5:1-11; 15:36-41; Gal. 22:11-16).
And yet, I never allowed myself to believe that these experiences were really Church. For some reason deep down I knew that Church was an organisation I had to become a member of. It was a weekly service I had to attend. It was a building my spiritual and social life had to be centred around. It was an ordained minister I had to submit to. It was rota’s I was expected to be on. It was the charity I gave my money to. Of course within this there were very real and significant relationships, but I often found it hard focussing on them amidst all the other requirements of being part of ‘Church’.
And that’s where the irony lies. I realise now I was in danger of doing the exact opposite of the only two things Jesus told us to do in relation to Church.
Jesus told us that he would build his church, the obvious implication being that we should not. And yet as I reflect on the 20 or so years I’ve been trying to follow Jesus, I’ve spent countless hours and huge amounts of energy and money trying to build his church (I’ve even worked as a church planter!).
And Jesus told us to protect these intimate relationships that form church. So what have I spent my time doing? Protecting a large, institutional organisation, the maintenance of which can at worst actually undermine intimate relationships.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I’ve now got Church sorted. The community I’m a part of is small, intimate, relational and largely free of unhelpful structures, but we’re still a very poor and broken version of Jesus’s bride. And I’m not saying that nothing good happens in the institutional church. Of course, God uses us in all our attempts to worship and serve him (and I still draw a wage from this institutional church!).
But as the institutional church steadily declines and loses influence, rather that mourning its demise, I feel increasingly energised and excited by the prospect of looking for the church Jesus is building and joining him in protecting that.